Hamburg Metropolitan Region: Fortress of research in the far north.

The Hamburg region stands out from the crowd due to its strengths in energy + the environment, transport + logistics and technology + innovation. It plays a key role in the area of renewable energies, which are a focus of industry, the research community and politics in equal measure. The Port of Hamburg is one of the major gateways to Europe, e.g. for China, and therefore one of the major reasons that logistics companies settle here and profit from the infrastructure.

The Hamburg region plays a central role in German energy policy. The free Hanseatic city is the headquarters for many industrial corporations and simultaneously an important centre for service companies. Virtually all the important energy suppliers and service providers have facilities here including manufacturers of wind energy plants such as REpower Systems, Nordex, Siemens, General Electric, AREVA Wind or Vestas. In addition, the city is a central planning location for solar parks throughout Germany and the world. With companies such as Conergy Deutschland, BP Solar, Voltwerk and Velux, the necessary technological expertise is always close at hand. The region's agricultural tradition in cultivating rapeseed, agricultural grass and maize provides an outstanding foundation for the biomass and biogas industries. More than 240 larger and smaller biogas plants are in operation, e.g. the biomass power station run by NovusEnergy generating 60 million KW per year.

Information technology, telecommunications and media and communications are the key areas in the technology + innovation sector. IT and telecommunications are excellently positioned with more than 9,000 companies providing everything from hardware and software development to manufacturing of devices and components to data processing services and games.

Media and multimedia companies are also an important engine of growth in the city. The weekly publications "DER SPIEGEL" and "DIE ZEIT", two of the most respected German titles on the country's news stands, are both produced in Hamburg. Moreover, Hamburg's publishers print well-known magazines such as "Stern", "GEO", "Brigitte", "Für Sie" and "PRINZ". As well as traditional publishing houses and broadcasters, the Hanseatic city has developed a new focus on the area of entertainment software. 180 companies operate here in the gaming sector alone. The region has also seized upon the latest developments in the area of digital film and is promoting trends and market processes in the areas of IPTV, web TV, video-on-demand and mobile phone TV as part of the "New TV" cluster.

In the transport + logistics sector, and particularly in logistics and aviation, Hamburg takes on a leading role as the most important port for trade with the Far East and China's gateway to Europe. Seven major shipping lines from China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan have chosen Hamburg. In addition, Hamburg has the largest railway junction in Northern Europe, the world's largest and Europe's most modern marshalling yard and the most technologically advanced container terminal on the planet. Yet Hamburg not only offers the highest skill levels in land and sea logistics, it is also a specialist in every facet of aircraft construction, maintenance and airport management. As well as three major companies in Airbus, Lufthansa Technik and Flughafen Hamburg, over 300 small and medium-sized companies as well as a variety of technological and scientific institutions contribute to the location's outstanding know-how. The aviation industry employs more than 39,000 highly qualified staff and makes Hamburg one of the world's most important sites for the civil aviation industry.